


The Four Human Emotions: Romantic Love, Love for the Homies, Confusion, and Hunger

by A_Tomb_With_A_View



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex will is ready to fight at all times, F/M, M/M, Misunderstandings, Music is mathematical okay?, Requested, Sunset curve says no❤️ To toxic masculinity, bi reggie, flynn is Observant, julie Molina is a Goddess and everyone knows this, queer Willie, these boys are stoopid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:01:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27581062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Tomb_With_A_View/pseuds/A_Tomb_With_A_View
Summary: Julie wasn’t sure exactly when she realised that Reggie and Alex were more than just friends.Embarrassingly, Flynn had called it the day after their performance at the Orpheum when they’d discovered the guys could become visible at will. Alex had been talking to Luke about something, looking anxious, and without even looking away from his conversation with Carlos, Reggie had grabbed Alex’s hand and linked pinkies with him, causing the other boy to relax immediately.“Oh, are those two together?” Flynn had asked, pointing at them.Julie had shaken her head. “No, I don’t think so? They’ve never mentioned it.”The universe, it seemed, was determined to prove her wrong.
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex & Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 44
Kudos: 294





	The Four Human Emotions: Romantic Love, Love for the Homies, Confusion, and Hunger

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MadameCristal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadameCristal/gifts).



> Hi guys!  
> This fic is for a request for some Alex/Reggie from Madame Cristal in return for the awesome fic she wrote for me, so I hope y’all enjoy :)

Julie wasn’t sure exactly when she realised that Reggie and Alex were more than just friends. 

To be completely fair, the boys  _ were _ incredibly comfortable with each other, and Alex was just as likely to kiss Luke’s forehead as Reggie’s, and Reggie was just as likely to boldly call Luke hot as he was Alex. So it wasn’t that obvious, at least not at first. 

Embarrassingly, Flynn had called it the day after their performance at the Orpheum when they’d discovered the guys could become visible at will. Alex had been talking to Luke about something, looking anxious, and without even looking away from his conversation with Carlos, Reggie had grabbed Alex’s hand and linked pinkies with him, causing the other boy to relax immediately. 

“Oh, are those two together?” Flynn had asked, pointing at them. 

Julie had shaken her head. “No, I don’t think so? They’ve never mentioned it.”

The universe, it seemed, was determined to prove her wrong. 

In the three weeks since their big performance, Julie had walked into the garage to find Alex and Reggie half on top of one another nearly a dozen times, and while she wouldn’t have thought twice about it before, Flynn’s words played over and over in the back of her mind. 

At first it was just the two boys staying wrapped around each other once Luke moved from the sofa they’d been laying on to sit with Julie, which was more just laziness, she was pretty sure. 

Then she’d stumbled into the garage one morning to try and find out why there was noise coming out when there was no band practice scheduled, and found Reggie and Alex jamming out, making continuous eye contact as they covered her and Luke’s parts, Reggie taking the high notes flawlessly. She’d not quite brushed that off as easily, but she’d gotten so twisted up about making sure she remembered to highlight her bandmates’ voices in future songs that she’d not focused as much on the practically tangible tension in the air. 

It had only properly started to click when Reggie had taken one of Alex’s sharp remarks a little too much to heart, and within seconds of him ducking his head with a hurt noise, Alex was by his side, cupping his jaw and murmuring reassurances too soft for Julie to make out. But she still wasn’t sure exactly, because Alex had basically done the same to her when Luke had snapped at her about something frivolous when frustration had built up during a song writing session. Sure, Alex hadn’t looked at her like  _ that,  _ but she’d also seen Alex look at a particularly cheesy pizza like that, so the evidence wasn’t concrete. 

But now, watching Alex introduce Willie to Reggie, she wasn’t surprised in the slightest when he said, “oh, and this is my boyfriend, Reginald,” and she wasn’t sure exactly when she’d become sure they were together. 

“It’s Reggie,” Reggie corrected immediately. “Alexander is just being a bitch.” 

Alex pulled a face. “That is because you broke my drumsticks, Reg.” 

Willie glanced back and forth between them like he was watching a particularly interesting game of tennis. “Okay, so do I call you Reggie, Reg, or Reginald?”

Reggie cleared his throat and turned to Willie. “Reggie, please. Reg is also fine, though. I don’t mind. Nice to meet you, though, man! Lexi talks about you all the time!” He offered his hand.

Willie took it and pulled Reggie in for one of those weird bro-hugs Julie thought only happened in tv shows. “Lexi?” He questioned, grinning at Alex.

Alex rolled his eyes, cheeks flushed. “We don’t talk about it, we just let Reg do his own thing.” 

Luke nudged Alex out of the way to offer his fist to Willie. “We can’t use it either, or Alex will kill us. Bobby tried once and Alex cut the strings of his guitar right in front of his face. Oh, and I’m Luke.” 

Willie’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline as he bumped his knuckles against Luke’s. “Nice to meet you, dude. And damn, Alex. When you go hard you go hard, huh?” 

“Firstly, Lucas, I cut his guitar strings mainly because he pretended to forget my birthday, which was a perfectly reasonable reaction,” Alex stated, waving Julie over. “And secondly, did he ever call me Lexi again? No? Task accomplished.” 

Julie tucked herself into Luke’s side and waved at Willie. “Hi, I’m Julie. I’m sorry that you had to meet these three before you met me, I could’ve convinced you that there are some brain cells in this band.” 

Willie laughed delightedly and waved back. “It’s lovely to meet you, Julie, and it’s very comforting to know that these three aren’t getting big on looks alone.” 

Alex spluttered, cheeks red, but obligingly high fived Luke and Reggie. “I hate every single one of you with my whole soul.”

Reggie shook his head and winked at Willie. “Isn’t that basically what happened with Sunset Curve though? We had such a smokin’ drummer that we got famous?” 

“Woah, woah, hold up,” Luke held his hands up in a pause gesture, expression sulky. “I’m pretty sure our lead singer was bringing in some chicks himself.”

Julie batted his chest. “Just let Reggie hit on Alex in peace, Luke, God. Besides, you should be perfectly happy with the girl you have, and not thinking about the pre-death ones.” 

“Oh, right, yeah. Sorry Julie.” Luke scuffed the toe of his converse against the floor. “I just need Alex to be reassured that he isn’t our most eye catching band member in case his anxiety acts up.”

Willie raised his hand. “Isn’t Julie the most eye catching band member? Is that not the point? Like sure you three are cute but it’s  _ Julie _ and the Phantoms? Plus, the vocals, man.”

Julie offered her hand for Willie to high five, then turned to her boys smugly. “Everybody listen to Willie.”

Alex held his hands up in surrender. “I sit behind drums, I’m not trying to be the most eye catching band member, go for it, Jules.” 

“And yet you still manage it,” Reggie grinned at Alex, but relented quickly. “Okay, Julie, you can be the most eye catching band member.”

Luke nodded quickly. “Oh, yeah, totally. I meant most eye catching  _ guy  _ band member. I know you’re prettier than all of us, it’s why I’m dating you.”

Julie raised an eyebrow, ignoring the feeling of her cheeks heating up. “Didn’t you date Alex?” 

“Well,” Alex pulled a face. “I don’t think we should be judging the taste of thirteen year old Alex and Luke.” 

Luke pointed at Alex. “Yeah, exactly. Did it even count as dating?” 

“Honestly I wouldn’t really say so. Like, we kissed on New Years and that was it. It was for like, two seconds.”

Reggie patted Julie’s shoulder consolingly. “It’s okay, Julie. They moved on to bigger,” he pointed to himself, “and better.” He gestured between the two of them.

Luke scowled. “Dude, we are basically the same height.”

“Wellll,” Willie and Alex drawled out in unison, voices high pitched. 

“Guys!” 

“Aw, guys,” Julie protested. “You’re gonna give him a complex!” 

“He deserves one,” Alex said flatly. “It’ll make up for his ego.” He high fived Reggie - without looking, as always, which made Julie both as jealous and impressed as she was every time they did that. 

“I’ll call you Lexi at our next gig,” Luke threatened. “We’ll finish, and I’ll turn to the crowd, and I’ll be like we are Julie and the Phantoms, give it up for our incredible lead singer, keyboardist, and songwriter, Julie Molina, our talented bassist and occasional singer, Reggie, and of course, our wonderful drummer, Lexi.” 

Alex sat down, smiling serenely. “That’s fine, Luke. You wanna excuse me for a minute? Flynn wants me to send her some photos of the band for the instagraph thing, and I have some rad ideas of how to break the news of me and Reg to our fans. I’m thinking one of those ten picture posts full of shots of you third wheeling? There’s even a great one Carlos took for me the other day, while you pretended to look sadly through the garage window when Reggie was singing me that song to make him laugh.” 

Luke’s jaw dropped. “Why did you even get him to take that?” 

“It’s original purpose was to go in the box of blackmail material I keep on everybody who interacts with you or Reg in case they need to be dealt with.” Alex shrugged and tugged Reggie down to sit next to him. “It’ll stay there if you’re smart.” 

Willie glanced back and forth between them. “I am  _ so  _ confused right now.” 

“Oh!” Reggie grinned. “Someone twittered that they thought ‘Lex and Luke would be a cute couple, and Julie thinks it’s funny but Luke is sad that no one thinks he’s good enough for Jules.” 

“And by posting pictures of him looking sad whilst you two did couple-y things, that would only fuel the flames of him having a thing for Alex,” Julie extrapolated. “Damn, Alex. You are  _ evil.” _

Luke sat down, arms crossed huffily. “Firstly, I am  _ not  _ good enough for Julie, so I’m not sad that they think that, I’m sad because clearly I’m not showing her enough love on stage if they think I have more chemistry with our  _ drummer.”  _

Willie snorted. “Dude I’m pretty sure they’re just getting queer vibes on stage and associating it with Alex, correctly, and you, because of your cuffed jeans and vans, incorrectly.” 

Julie cackled and high fived him again, settling on the arm of Luke’s chair, but the three boys stared at him, Alex and Reggie looking hurt, Luke angry.

“That’s not - You can’t say that, man,” Reggie managed, separating himself from Alex a little. 

“I thought you were…” Alex trailed off, shaking his head. “Okay. That’s fine. I, um. Okay.” His hand shook slightly where it rested on his knee, and Reggie reached out to grab it, but stopped himself. 

“Dude, what the fuck?” Luke demanded, standing up. “We thought you were cool with that kind of stuff? And I am, queer, or whatever, but you don’t go throw words like that around, and  _ especially  _ not at Alex and Reggie. And I can’t believe you  _ laughed _ .” He turned to Julie. “I thought. Well, I didn’t think this would happen, for sure.” 

“Oh shit,” Willie muttered, shaking his head frantically.

“Luke, that’s not,” Julie started explaining before Willie got his thoughts together. “I’m really sorry, queer kind of has different connotations than it did in your time. It still means not straight, but a lot of people in the community use it, because it’s been reclaimed. Willie didn’t mean it offensively, and I didn’t mean to laugh at you.” 

“I won’t use it if you’re uncomfortable, though,” Willie added. “That’s cool. I didn’t think, and I’m sorry.”

“I don’t-” Alex shrugged uncomfortably, tentatively taking Reggie’s hand again. “You can. If you, um. If you want to. I just. Can you give us a bit? Please? I’m. I need a minute.” 

“Of course, Alex.” Julie smiled apologetically at him. “We’ll be here when you’re ready.” 

“I’m really sorry,” Willie told him again.

Alex shook his head. “It’s okay, you didn’t know.” He poofed out, and Reggie followed a millisecond later. 

“Alex’s parents were homophobic,” Luke said abruptly, not looking at either of them. “And as happy as Bobby was to fight anyone who so much as looked at any of us wrong, we still  _ heard  _ what they said. About how Reg is stupid and Alex is queer and I’m… well… weird. I’m not mad, and neither are Alex or Reg. We know that words change over time. But. That’s why.” He gestured to where they’d been sitting. “That’s why they’re gone.” 

Julie took his hand and squeezed it gently. “We don’t think any of those things. Besides, I’m queer too. It’s just a common way for people to identify these days.”

“Me too,” Willie said, raising his hand. “I don’t know which word to use, exactly, so I prefer queer. I swear I wouldn’t have said it if I’d’ve been thinking.” 

“It’s okay,” Luke said. “Alex wouldn’t want anyone to stop themselves being who they are on his account. Neither would Reg, or me. It’s just… a shock, y’know? My parents never cared, and Reg’s didn’t know, and we both like girls too, so we never got much flack. But Alex? He’s never been anything less than himself, and he’s always been hopeless around Reg.” He shrugged. “You can’t help but admire him and worry about him at the same time.”

“Yeah,” Reggie said, and Julie looked up just as Alex poofed back in. “He’s pretty awesome.”

Alex laid down with his head in Reggie’s lap. “Sorry for freaking out,” he said to Willie, then smiled at Julie. 

“Don’t even think about it,” Julie warned. “You just needed a minute. That’s okay. In this house we process emotions healthily and ask for what we need.” 

“Um…” Alex raised an eyebrow at her, his usual scathing deadpan softened by the way his eyes fluttered when Reggie started carding his fingers through his hair. “Those expectations seem a little unreasonable. But okay.” 

Luke scoffed. “Are you kidding me? Bro you’ve been making us talk about our feelings since ‘85.”

“He’s right, babe,” Reggie agreed. “Remember that time Bobby had an identity crisis because he was  _ way _ more into a threesome with a girl and her boyfriend than he expected and you, like, coached him through it?”

“Or the time-” Luke started.

“I can deal with you guys’ emotions,” Alex interrupted, waving a hand in dismissal. “That’s easy, you guys feel, like, four things a week.”

Reggie hummed. “Love for you, love for the guys, constant confusion, and hunger,” he counted off. “Damn, bro. Good guess.” 

“Okay, that’s it!” Julie slapped her hands on her thighs. “Why are you two like this? I’m so confused! I had no idea you two were together until like two weeks ago because you’re always calling each other bro and dude!” 

Alex furrowed his eyebrows. “But he calls me Lexi? I feel like he’s also slapped my ass in front of you at least once.” 

“I have, almost definitely,” Reggie agreed, tilting his head like a confused puppy. “Plus, Luke makes jokes about it literally all the time?” 

“I’ve only known you guys for like two and a half months, I didn’t know about the Lexi thing,” Julie reminded them. “And y’all have zero toxic masculinity I assumed you were just Like That.” 

“They are terrible at not sounding madly in love when they talk about each other, though,” Willie countered. “Alex was tryna be smooth, I guess because he didn’t know about how far gay rights have come and stuff, but he told me one story about Reggie and I was just like, ah, the boyfriend.” 

Alex groaned and turned red, hiding his face in Reggie’s stomach. “I hate you!” 

“Flynn saw it before I did,” Julie admitted. “Besides, you guys could’ve told me?” 

“I thought Luke would,” Reggie shrugged. “But he must’ve been too busy trying to impress you.” He wiggled his eyebrows, grinning.

Luke rolled his eyes. “You two could’ve just used your words?” 

Alex mumbled something into Reggie’s stomach, then laid back so he could be heard. “At first I didn’t know about how chill people in the future would be with it. And then it was kinda fun seeing how far we could push it? And then it was wayyy too late to come out and say it,” he repeated, blushing. 

Willie laughed. “Oh my god, you guys are so dysfunctional.”

“Oh my god, you guys are so dysfunctional,” Reggie mimicked. “Not all of us have functioning brains, okay?” 

“Exactly!” Luke gestured wildly to Reggie. “Is that so hard for you thought-having people to understand?” 

“Hey!” Alex protested. “I have thoughts! I think about literally everything! All the time!” 

“Alex,” Julie said slowly, like she was placating a scared animal. “You don’t have thoughts, you have  _ anxiety _ .” 

“Alex is very smart,” Reggie protested. “He can do maths, which is like… impossible.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that. I hate maths.” Willie shuddered. “Like why did they add letters?” 

Julie had to agree with them on that one. “Maths does suck.” 

“Guys.” Alex sat up, plastering himself against Reggie’s side instead. “Music is mathematical?”

“Blasphemy!” Luke yelped, jumping so he was crouched on the armchair. “You take that back Alexander you take that back right now!” 

Alex frowned. “It is though? I was talking to Flynn the other day, apparently they can write songs based off mathematical formulae now, and it works.” 

“There’s no  _ soul  _ in mathematically produced songs, though.” Julie shook her head. 

“Well, yeah, but there is a mathematical component to even the soul-sy stuff. What will fit, what’ll sound good and what won’t, syncopation, it’s all maths, at its core.” 

“I cannot  _ believe  _ I am in love with you,” Reggie told him fondly. “You’re so fucking weird.” 

So, yeah. Julie couldn’t quite pinpoint when she’d figured out that Alex and Reggie were more than friends, but by this point, she was pretty damn certain of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Personally I lean more in the willex direction (my baking fic will eventually have more willex content I promise) but I can definitely see the appeal in the heart dumbass/the brain dumbass, so I hope I did them justice!  
> Kudos and comments are much appreciated if you enjoy :)  
> -Meg


End file.
